The Railway Ministry has finally got a compact Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS), which will unify eight existing services of the national transporter. These services are Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Railway Stores Service (IRSS), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) and Indian Railway Accounts Services (IRAS).

A Gazette notification in this regard was issued by the Ministry of Railways on February 9. The reform had been proposed when Union Minister Piyush Goyal was having the portfolio of Railway Ministry. The move had created heartburn among certain sections of officers but the Ministry had clarified that seniority of officers will not be affected. It said that 27 posts of GMs have been upgraded to apex grade and will be ensured the eligible officers of all the erstwhile services get apex grade post of GM.

“'In pursuance of Cabinet’s decision dated 24.12.2019, there shall be creation of a new Group 'A' Central service called Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS),” the notification issued by the Ministry of Railways stated. It is worth mentioning that in December 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had announced the merger of eight existing Group A services into a single unified central service – IRMS – to end ‘departmentalism’ in railways.

Indian Railways recorded more than 10 per cent increase in freight loading as compared to the normal year of 2019-20. In the financial year 2021-22, Indian Railways’ total loading was 203.88 million tonnes (MT), which is 10 per cent more than FY 2019-20 loading figures (184.88 MT) for the same period. /BI/